564 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCATION. 
rivals, and with their critical and judicial faculty cultivated and in active 
nse. Theyshould be able to exhibit the action of the trained mind before 
the student, and not merely to theorize about its action. They should 
not be compelled to follow too far behind the lead of those who are at the 
head of their specialty. This is the great difficulty connected with the 
promotion to responsible professorships of young men who are put into 
subordinate positions in the schools immediately upon graduation, with- 
out an opportunity for contact with the competitive conditions of profes- 
sional practice. 
Third. Teachers of engineering should have some capacity as adminis- 
srators and business men. Here at once a difficulty is presented ; a com- 
paratively small number of our professors can be the executive head of 
their institution, although American technical education exhibits notable 
instances of success along these lines. On the other hand, business exi- 
gency demands that the head of a corporation or firm shall give his entire 
time to its business, which the professor of engineering is, of course, 
lebarred from doing. 
The most practical solution of this difficulty has been reached where it 
has been possible for the teacher of engineering to have his work supple- 
mented by lectures, isolated or in course, by successful practitioners who 
have made a name for themselves in their specialty. This procedure is 
not without its difficulties in spite of its obvious advantages. The advan- 
ages ave the contact with student and practitioner, which is stimulat- 
‘ng to the former in the highest degree, and he feels sure that the point 
of view of the lecturer is that of the competitive conditions of the day. 
The disadvantage is the danger lest these very competitive conditions 
orevent the lecturer from giving due recognition to the excellence of rival 
achievements. There is the further danger of disagreement between the 
lecturer and the regular professor, while both may be right. The student 
is likely to suspect errancy on the part of him who disagrees with a spe- 
sialist, and the taint of errancy in one subject may extend so as to seriously 
iffect the efficiency of the regular instructor in all subjects, which is, of 
course, unfortunate. There is the further difficulty that the lecturer may 
pass over the heads of his auditors, and the difficulty of finding time in a 
srowded course for much of this sort of additional work. 
It would take us too far afield to pursue this discussion in detail, but it 
is the opinion of the writer that the advantages overweigh the disadvan- 
sages, and that instruction by such lecturers is desirable when practicable. 
Fourth. So far as the student himself is concerned, his fundamental 
training in science should begin back in the preparatory schools, so that 
she latter part of the curriculum in the professional school can be spe- 
cially devoted to this advanced training of ¢ke man, and the strengthen- 
ing of his faculties by devotion to the applications of law and principle, 
and the strengthening of the mental powers in this direction.